For the Oil & Gas industry GEA offers 3-Phase separating decanters for the treatment of waste and slop oils.

Slop oil, which may consist of residues and upstream products from refineries, which do not meet the specifications with regard to water and salt content as well as oils from leakages for instance. In many oil-producing countries, for instance in South America, in the Middle East or in Russia, the common practice for many decades has been to pump these contaminated oils into lagoons or intermediate storage; these lagoons are each capable of storing up to one million barrels of oil. The lagoons frequently hold an undefined mixture of oil, water and sediments. The water content can vary between 10 and 70 percent, as can the oil content, and the solids content can range between 3 and 15 percent. Everything is conceivable, from a relatively aqueous low-viscosity mixture right through to substances which are similar to tar with a viscosity of more than 1000 Centistokes.

Our available decanters for this application have a low bowl angle for optimal thickening and a hydraulic scroll drive for maximum power. We have also the patented bowl design for handling of brine with a specific gravity of up to 1.5 sg.

GEA tackles this challenge with a successful combination consisting of mechanical separation technology, minimum use of chemical agents and the right process. Our 3-phase decanters of the new ecoforce series combine high performance with low energy consumption. Together with the decanter featuring the super pond depth design, the integrated summationdrive ensures that energy consumption has been reduced by a further 30 percent. With the summationdrive, a primary drive drives the bowl and a secondary drive drives the scroll, and the performance of both motors is combined. An intelligent kinematic solution combines the capacities of the two motors (“summation” arrangement), and then forwards them precisely to the bowl and scroll. Unnecessary conversion losses, such as those encountered with other solutions featuring back drive, are not encountered with the summationdrive. A further major aspect of the new generation is the fully automatic facility for adjusting the differential speed in a broad range as well as the low space requirement. With its high speed and high g-force as well as the super deep pond design, our decanters ensure optimum performance with a minimum space requirement.